ISSUES

WHEN SHARKS DIE, THE OCEANS DIE.

Sharks are vital to the health of the oceans.
Sharks are keystone species in the oceans. They are the tigers of the sea and they play critical roles as both predators and scavengers. For over 400 million years, they have helped maintain healthy and balanced marine ecosystems by eliminating diseased and genetically defective animals.

Collapsing Marine ecosystems.
Removing sharks will result in the collapse of the entire marine food web. It's like a big tower of jenga; you take out a key brick at the bottom and the whole thing collapses. This is because of a phenomenon called ‘Trophic Cascade'. Overfishing of sharks cascades into a sudden uprising of the species they prey on, causing an abundance of skates, rays and smaller sharks, which then steadily devastate populations of animals further down the food chain, like shellfish.

Our commercial fisheries are doomed.
By killing sharks, we unknowingly inflict collateral damage on commercial food fisheries—fisheries that support large human populations around the world. In Tasmania , for instance, the demise of sharks led to the collapse of the spiny lobster industry. In Chesapeake Bay in the United States , excessive shark hunting led to a fall in the population of scallops and clams. And clam chowder went off the menu in eateries across the East Coast of the USA .

Sharks are under severe threat.
According to the latest estimates, over a 100 million sharks are killed each year for their fins. Shark populations are now reduced by 70% in some species and up to 98% in species like tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, bull sharks and blacktip sharks. Sharks are also slow to recover from over-hunting because they are slow breeding and slow-maturing apex predators.

The greatest threat is from shark fin soup.
The majority of the demand for shark meat is from the shark-fin industry, centered in Asia . Singapore is one of the main consumer countries, along with Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand. For every Chinese wedding banquet in Singapore that serves shark fin soup, the world loses another 40-50 sharks.

For the sake of our oceans, give up the soup.
Every time you say no to shark fin soup, you not only save the life of a shark, you help save thousands of marine life. As more of us give up shark fin soup altogether, and encourage still more people to do the same, we will eventually restore shark populations to healthy levels and our oceans to their natural equilibrium. It's a worthwhile goal.

Say ‘no' to shark fin soup.

Ingredients:
Yellow beans
1 carrot
Half a spaghetti squash (known as shark fin melon)
3 chinese shitake mushrooms cut into strips
2 black and white fungus cut into strips
10 grams lily flowers
1 toufu cut into strips
1 sheet Beancurd skin (fuzhouk) break into pieces
10 grams celery cut into strips
10 grams carrot cut into strips

Seasonings:
Black soy sauce
Ground white pepper
Table salt
Black vinegar
Sweet potato starch

Stock:
Cut the carrots into chunks. Boil together with the yellow beans to make the soup stock.

Strain the stock after when soup base is ready. Put the stock aside.

Spaghetti squash:
Cut the squash into quarters and boil in water with skin. Once soften, take up the squash and leave it to cool in a ice filled pot.

After cooling, you can easily peel the strands of squash away from the skin. Be careful not to tear the strands apart. Keep the strands together so that you get the ‘shark fin' in whole piece when served.

Cooking the soup:
Heat oil in pan. Stir in the stripped carrots and mushrooms till fragrant. Add in the rest of the ingredients to stir except for the egg whites. Once it's fragrant, add in prepared stock to ingredients. Add seasoning to taste and black soy sauce for colour. Bring to boil, stir in sweet potato starch. Stop when you get the consistency you prefer. Then last but not least, add in the beancurd skin into soup. Now gently placed the pieces of ‘shark fin' into the soup. Let it simmer for 10mins on low heat.

Finally, serve with a sprig of coriander and a dash of vinegar.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Video clips
View footage on the shark wedding cake.
Click here for the jenga video.
Dead sharks wedding cake on Flickr.

Click the following for released press articles
Rally against shark fin trade opens in Singapore – TODAY Online
Singaporeans rally to say no to shark fins soup – The Online Citizen
First ever animal lovers gathering at Speakers' Corner –
The Online Citizen
Rally against shark fin trade opens in Singapore – Adelaide Now
Rally against shark fin trade opens in Singapore – Yahoo News


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